[VIFF 2021] REVIEW: 'The Electrical Life of Louis Wain' is low voltage drama
Benedict Cumberbatch stars in The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, directed by Will Sharpe.
The trailer for The Electrical Life of Louis Wain will have you believe that it’s a dialed-back version of a Wonka-induced acid trip. In reality, it’s a Benedict Cumberbatch vehicle that stops and starts in spurts, and even an A-list cast can’t save it from becoming a cliched fable about an eccentric polymath that glosses over some of the issues that plagued the life and legacy of the real Louis Wain.
Set primarily during the turn of the century, Wain comes from a relatively well-to-do family who quits his job as a teacher to become a freelance artist. He struggles to provide for his family as the patriarch, which includes five sisters, all of whom who are younger than him. He’s a talented artist interested in many things, but like most tortured geniuses, some of the harsher truths of reality escape him. He is easily duped and manipulated and despite his prolific talents is always shown to be struggling.
The film showcases a lot of Cumberbatch’s acting prowess, and it’s forced to because none of the supporting cast get a chance to steal the show. Emily (Claire Foy), his love interest and wife, drifts in and out of scenes only when Louis needs her, and his boss at the London Illustrated News, Sir Ingram (Toby Jones), also drifts in and out and serves something closer to Basil Exposition than a mentor or an antagonist. We are left with Wain’s quaint and eccentric genius, sometimes without much context and a lot of times to the annoyance of the characters around him, making it difficult to sympathize with him.
It is strongly hinted that Wain suffers from schizophrenia, which would’ve made a fine opposition on its own and seeing the progression from his realistic cat sketches to the kaleidoscopic, bug-eyed versions would’ve been a nice parallel. But, instead, we are continuously pulled in too many different directions, from Wain’s troublesome family members to his battles with copyright law, his growth from obscure artist to cult hero, and a short sojourn to the U.S. that felt very rushed.
I half-expected a whimsical musical number with Wain dancing along with green and blue cats, but instead we got the usual drab dark colours of early 1900s England, highlighted by only a few scenes in which we really understand and feel the titular electricity in Wain’s life. Among biopics that featured geniuses haunted by the ghosts in their minds, Louis Wain betrays its title because it lacks excitement and intrigue.
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain gets two and a half stars out of four.
